Jess’s Fav Five Kickstarters of the Week 5/12/17

It’s Friiiiiiiiiiidaaaaaay!!!

Let’s celebrate by exploring this week’s Kickstarters that made my wallet weep.

1. One Deck Dungeon: Forest of Shadows

Asmadi Games’ One Deck Dungeon is a stand-out for me as it is not only a fun game, but it features an all female cast of heroes. This is rare in games and I say “Pshaw!” to you if that’s a deal breaker.

Forest of Shadows is a stand-alone game, but can be mixed into the base game of One Deck Dungeon. You’ve got new cards, characters, new consequences like poison, dungeons, etc… In essence this is just more awesomeness.

2. Jellybean Shirts – Colorful clothing for board gamers!

These shirts are adorable and I love the Settlers of Cat design (My cats always do this when we play games). There is a crazy backer level where you can pay $499 to get your own pet to replace the cat in the design.

The illustrations on the other shirts are pretty keen as well and if you’re not going for a custom shirt, then they are pretty reasonably priced.

3. Alone

Usually in an an asymmetric survival horror/dungeon crawling game the heroes have teamed up against a single overlord of evil. In Alone, by Horrible Games, it flips that idea on its head. A single player must try to survive the shenanigans that their 3 dastardly friends have cooked up for them, while trying to complete missions.

Alone is a minis based game of exploration through a dark, and dangerous planet. Using their trusty flashlight, the hero can only see part of the map at any one time, while the evil overlords have access to all sectors and will populate the map with traps and monsters to try to slow the hero down.

The game seems like a neat take on the genre. I am intrigued that the Kickstarter is offering a 3D Resin Map Tiles Addon Kit. Sadly it won’t be available for retail and it is pricey, but the resin map is really nice and I think it could go a long way into helping create a claustrophobic feel for the game.

4. Light Hunters : Battalion of Darkness

Design, design, design!Light Hunters : Battalion of Darkness, by DTDA Games, is a 2-8 player Card Drafting/Hand Management game and someone designed the crap out of it! From the box to the cards to the tokens, this game is a visual feast.

Gameplay is team based. Two teams will face-off against each other drafting heroes. Each hero has a unique set of skills, letting you construct a team that suits your style or strategy. Each round a certain amount of “Ether” will be available (this dictates how many skills you can use). To use these skills you play Spirits of Light cards. Play goes back and forth between the two teams until all heroes on one team have been defeated.

I think Light Hunters : Battalion of Darkness has a neat story to it, the game is beautiful, and since it is a team play battle game, I am more likely to play it vs. something like Magic which is every person for themselves (you can tell I got burnt out on Magic long, long ago). Take a loot at theLight Hunters : Battalion of Darkness Kickstarter here.

5. Frutti di Mare: Veni, Vidi, Antipasti!

Crab based battle royale!

This is a delightfully silly 2-6 player strategy game about crabs battling over who gets to be the delicious centerpiece of a plate of pasta. The object of the game is to either reach the center of the board with your King Crab, hold the center with any piece for 1 full round, or eliminate your opponent’s King Crabs.

You’ll recruit an army of seafood and roll dice to determine the outcomes of battles. I love the humor in the game and with the Kickstarter you can get an exclusive Frutti di Mare cookbook. It’s wasted on me as I hate seafood, but you all might enjoy it.

Honorable mention: Deadly Premonition: The Board Game

I wrote at length about this bizarre game here and here. This one gets a mention just based on the fact that I still can’t get over the fact that someone is going to make this. The quick lo-down is this is a hidden role, deduction game for 2-4 players based off of the Deadly Premonition video game.